50% posts of doc, para staff vacant at Civil Hospital

Even as the Punjab Government has been making tall claims of providing the best medical infrastructure in the Civil Hospitals of the state with totally free laboratory tests and medicines to the patients, the reality is different.

The 140-bedded Civil Hospital in Phagwara, including 30-bedded mother-child care centre, has been grappling with an acute shortage of medical and para-medical staff for the past two years. The hospital has no radiologist, anaesthetist, skin specialist or even a dental surgeon.

Of the total 119 sanctioned posts, a total of 61 medical and para-medical staff are lying vacant. Around 450 patients are being examined and treated daily in the Civil Hospital, which clearly calls for a pressing need for more staff. Since the hospital falls close to the National Highway-1 and the traffic keeps moving at a high speed all day, accident victims are brought to the hospital for emergency services.

Even the blood bank in the Civil Hospital is lying non-operational for the last two years. Senior Medical Officer Dr Parminder Kaur admitted that out of total 24 sanctioned posts of nurses, 12 are lying vacant. The SMO said a staff nurse was deputed in the dialysis unit ward and three were deputed in the emergency wing. So, only eight staff nurses were available in different wards. The SMO also admitted that 14 posts of medical officers, out of the total 31 sanctioned posts were lying vacant.

Further, the hospital also does not have on rolls any electrician, washerman or plumber, owing to which the patients and the hospital staff are facing much inconvenience. There is neither any canteen provision nor any contractor for the cycle stand.

The SMO said the staff crunch had made the smooth functioning of the hospital impossible. She said she had written to the higher authorities to fill the vacant posts of nurses as soon as possible.

Even the eye department of the hospital has no Tonometer to check the eye pressure of glaucoma patients. The eye surgeon said she had already submitted the requirements before the authorities concerned.